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Credit Cards to Keep

When not chasing a credit card signup bonus, these are the cards I regularly use. They all offer straight cash back and have no annual fee (except one). Higher cash back/travel points (especially for frequent flyers/hotel users) are available from cards not mentioned here. Store cards may offer a higher percentage but use points that expire within a month and/or can only be spent at the store.

Alliant (Visa Signature) 2.5% cash back

The best no-annual-fee card for Costco/Walmart/all other categories (exclude travel and niche rotating categories). After a rather annoying setup, this card can be your sole credit card if you don't want to think about categories, or as the permanent backup card. If your annual spend for these is more than $10,000 ($833 monthly) like most average Americans, you may want to also apply or wait for the Robinhood card below.

Cashback redemption minimum is $50, as a statement credit or direct deposit (only into Alliant banks). Takes 1 or 2 months to setup (initial rate is only 1.5% cash back), until a month of the $1000 requirement in their checking account and 1 automatic transfer is setup. Although, you might as well go for their other $100 bank account signup bonuses. Although higher bonuses have been offered in past. For more info, see DoctorOfCredit.

Robinhood 3% cash back (Visa)

The soon-to-be best card for Costco/Walmart/all other categories (exclude travel and niche rotating categories). Not released yet (only option to join an email waitlist). $50 annual fee. Unlikely to last long (maybe 1 to 2 years as Robinhood is not the most reliable company). The extra .5% would makes up for the $50 annual fee, assuming your annual spend for these categories is more than $10,000 ($833 monthly) like most average Americans.

Citi Custom Cash (Visa) 5% in select category

Unlike other 5% cards, you don't need to do any quarterly setup for this card. However, the cash cap is the lowest with $500 monthly (returning you a max of $25 per month). Whichever category you spent the most will be auto-selected. I use this solely for Supermarkets. You can also buy physical gift cards (Best Buy, Home Depot/Lowes, Amazon, etc.) from certain supermarkets to get an effective 5% with some manual labor.

US Bank cash+ 5% (Visa Signature)

This card requires you to select 2 categories online, a month before every quarter. However, you can select the same categories each time or plan a major purchase since the categories rarely change. The monthly cash cap is $2,000 (returning you a max of $100 per month). I use home utilities and cell phone. Other categories include gyms, "tv/internet/streaming", electronic stores, furniture stores, sporting good stores, department stores, ground transportation, fast food, movie theaters, and "select clothing stores".

Chase Freedom (Visa) / Discover, 5% in rotating categories

These 2 cards feature an ever-changing calendar that requires you to signup online a month before every quarter.

Capital One (Mastercard), 3% restaurant

Savor One. Although other cards also offer 3% for restaurant. And churning cards often offer more.

See more aggregated info at CreditCardGuide.

smart sleep cooling/heating pad

Updated June 2023.

*Warning* Out of date: See Pod 4.

Buy this expensive, temperature-controlling, sleeping pad (Pod 3 cover) or mattress with my $250 referral discount at EightSleep

(Price at time: $2050 for queen-size Pod 3 Cover with PerfectFit. Price has dropped to $1700 during Memorial Day. $250 referral coupon does not stack with other coupons.)

PROS: Membership is not required for main features. You can set your side to one temperature and your partner can set to a different temperature. This cover goes over your existing mattress with minimal difference to mattress feeling (older versions are more noticeable). You can set a schedule for temperature controls per day per side. You can manually override the schedule to set the temperature at any time. You can set vibration wake-up alarms per side with adjustable strength (Although light sleepers can still hear or feel the vibration from the other side). The accuracy is questionable but the app will try to wake you up in your desired time-frame, while maintaining REM sleep. Thirty days free return.

CONS: The device is noisy when changing temperature, although relatively quiet after temperature is reached and during the night. Initial setup/disassembly takes hours. Membership only required for heart rate tracking and other features (which is likely not accurate anyway).

This cover uses water so some precaution maybe needed with pets. Much cheaper alternative products use air instead. There may be some alternatives available that also use water, with varying comfort.

A smart phone is required for initial setup and for manual controls. There are no physical manual controls or remote controller.

SlickDeals - search for limited time offers

Deals may include physical or digital visa giftcards, combined with credit card offers on office supply stores such as Staples and OfficeDepot.

Online Giftcards

Discounts from 5% to 15%. Stores that are frequently in stock include: Target, HomeDepot, Lowes, AirBnB, Apple, Bed Bath & Beyond, Kohl's

In order of preference: CardCookie, Raise.

Cashback (Shopping Portals)

Nearly all will prompt you to install their browser addon (not needed but can be convenient). Amazon and similiar websites usually don't offer cashback on anything besides affiliated products (ex. Fire tablets).

household-product Review sites

Be wary of the review sites from your top google search with nothing but top 5 or top 10 amazon links. Those low quality sites are often reviewed by someone who has no hands on experience with any of the products or regurgitated from ConsumerReports (which you can often get free from your library or torrent).

Here are a few quality review websites with hands-on experience in order of preference:

• TechGearLab

  OutdoorGearLab

  BabyGearLab

These websites below loosely enforce article limits, but you can easily work around it by using incognito mode, clear your cache/cookies, open another browser profile (available in Brave browser), or using another browser.

RTINGS for electronics

NY Times - Wirecutter

You can also check out their deals page.

They have a history of pay-to-play corruption so take the higher-end ($1000+) suggestions with a grain of salt.

DIY tool reviews: ProjectFarm youtube.

As Seen on TV reviews: Freakin Reviews.

Lens Wipes (disposable)

Bausch (Made-In-USA)

Buy these Made-In-USA disposable lens wipes at Costco(Price at time: $15 for 200 wipes. Price occasionally drops to $12.)

Also available at Amazon_{(Sold by Amazon)} at $11.50 for only 100 wipes.

Arguably much easier in the long run than keeping a microfiber cloth clean.

Both Bausch and Zeiss wipes have a small learning curve as they are both like wet paper. When you wipe and a small amount of alcohol is left on but evaporates in around 1 second is when you are in the sweet spot. If you don't wait at all, wiping once without waiting, you will usually get water spots. If you wait too long, your wipe will dry out and leave streaks (Or worse, dirt/sand can damage your lens/screen. When in doubt, just open another wipe.).

For rare sticky substances like oil, you will need something more absorptive (a fingertip works fine after an initial wipe) and then re-wipe.

Zeiss (made-in-china)

Buy these alternative disposable lens wipes at Costco(Price at time: $16 for 300 tissues.)

Also available at Amazon and Walmart in various denominations.

Electric Fly Swatter

Quickly kill mosquitos, flies, and wasps.

Smaller bugs/nats may fly right through 50% of time. Big bugs generally stick to the screen where you can hold for a few seconds to kill (otherwise they will just be stunned).

Rotating Swatter

Amazon(Price at time: $26 for 1 or $40 for 2._{Sold byGeckoMan})

Plain Black&Decker Swatter

Amazon(Price at time: $10_{Sold byWorld Wide Dist})

Pet Filtered-Water Fountain

If you want to spoil your pet with clean water (and you have an electric outlet available), you might be interested in this stainless steel pet fountain at Amazon(Price at time: $50._{Sold byONEISALL-Direct})

This fountain is the largest of its kind and designed better than most for easy cleaning. For a small dog, cat, or fat rabbit, it requires a refill every week.

Still, you may want a simpler gravity-fed larger water container that can be more easily cleaned and does not require an outlet. Or a smaller bowl.

Replacement filters

Fountain comes with a few filters but you can save money after a few weeks when its time for replacement and purchase Made-In-USA, cut-to-fit water filter at Amazon(Price at time: $18 for 12x72._{Sold byAquatic Experts})

Competition tested

Pioneer Pet Stainless Steel Fountain Raindrop Design: Too noisy because motor hum is audible.

Petilog Stainless Steel Cat Water Fountain, 3.2L: no auto shutoff, pump unable to reach low water

PETKIT Wireless Pump Pet Smart Water Fountain: expensive, plastic top, needs additional product to connect to wifi (wireless is only bluetooth)

Ormallano longer sells.

Setex Eyeglass Nose Pads

Buy these Made-In-USA nosepads for your glasses at Amazon

(Price at time: $27 for 15 or $12 for 5._{Sold by Setex Technologies})

ALTERNATIVE: Thinner, slightly more expensive, available at Amazon

(Price at time: $29 for 15 or $14 for 5.)

Sunglass clips

Buy these cheap, plastic, polarized sunglass clips that go over your existing glasses at Amazon(Price at time: $15 for 60*47mm._{Sold byChaingo})

A cheap solution to protect your glasses when you go to the beach, trim grass, use a saw or other activities that may damage your regular glasses. Polarized glasses may also allow you to see slightly better through water when there is sun reflections.

(Relatively) Quiet Blender

Buy this quiet, Made-In-USA Vitamix blender at Amazon(Price at time: $1,135. _{Sold by Amazon.com})

Blendtec offers a similar product. There are other Made-in-China quiet alternatives that are much cheaper ($260) but may not last as long.

DoctorOfCredit - bank signup bonuses

Check out the best bank and credit card signup bonuses at DoctorOfCredit.

Example: You can get a $100 bonus at DCU signup and you can earn 6% APY, limited to $1,000. (only 0.25% APY on balances over $1,000). More details at DoctorOfCredit DCU info.

If you're not confident with your credit score, read more at should you apply? to see if "churning" is right for you. You may wish to avoid the credit card bonuses and only stick to the bank account bonuses. Bonus/interest over $10 is reported to the IRS. The banks will usually both mail the relevant tax form to your address and provide it in your account settings online.

Most banks such as Chase have no early cancellation fee and will let you get the signup bonus again after 2 years. There may be annual or monthly fees, so cancel your account after the bonus posts. Then, move your money to the next bonus (and check DoctorOfCredit for info on fees). Alternatively, just park your savings in a 5% APY bank such as Poppy (online only) or Flagstar.

Empower (Personal Capital) - free budgeting tool

After setup, it automatically pulls from your credit card and bank accounts to show all your savings and transactions up-to-date in one spot. You can also add Android widgets on your phone.

Runner-up: Mint Intuit

To be replaced by Credit Karma in March 2024, which may cause loss of features and a buggy experience.

Available on ios and android, with useful widgets such as displaying all transactions.

Some rare accounts are unable to sync via Plaid directly to Intuit or frequently fail to update after the syncing. However, there is a workaround to add the troublesome account to an existing account that does its own linking (ironically through a different version of Plaid) such as DCU signup, which can then be tracked by Intuit.

Research how to "back door roth ira"

Also, if you have an HSA from your employer that is charging you monthly fees, you may want to move it to Fidelity or another provider that does not charge fees.

Home Pepper Spray

This pepper spray works at a longer range and better than typical pocket-sized sprays. For situations where you can't use a firearm. Buy at Amazon. (Price at time: $43. _{Sold by Amazon})

Made-In-USA. Shipping restrictions may apply depending on state.

Foot Massager

Human Touch Foot Massager

Buy this high-end foot massager at Amazon(Price at time: $333. _{Sold by Amazon})

KoolerThings Foot Massager

Buy this medium-cost foot massager at Amazon(Price at time: $190. _{Sold by KoolerThings Inc.})